April 21st 2021

Chapter 111
Our Opening Into Time

"This the one here, sweetheart?" If the familiar click of crutches hadn't alerted Maya to the approach, the deep baritone voice of Keith Reyes locked it in for sure. He appeared in the doorway and spotted her at once, which answered the question for him. "My favorite art teacher," he opened out his arms and Maya moved to hug him with a laugh.

"One of my favorite uncles," she teased.

"Who beat me?" he inquired with a suspicious chin in the air, as though he saw competition.

"It was a tie," Maya grinned as the co-champion came along, carrying Lea's bag while she advanced on her crutches. "I thought you were carrying your own things now?" she asked her student.

"He hovers," Lea shrugged, looking to her father. Michael Sullivan had the look of a man who would have gladly carried his daughter's bag wherever she went, and Maya could easily imagine his nephew would be the same with his baby girl.

"Look at him go," Michael chuckled to her, nodding across the room. Presently, Keith had spotted Marianne and had gone and picked her up from where Granny Lizzie had her. The small girl in the man's hold looked like a little doll, and she could not have been safer. "He's been giving me those looks again."

"Looks…" Maya wasn't following at first, then… "Oh!" she blinked. "He wants to adopt again? I thought you guys said you were done after the girls."

"We were, we are, but… I don't know. Maybe there's a… sliver of wiggle room in there. Nothing's decided, but…" he nodded to his husband again, and Maya could see what he saw, too. The man looked overtaken with a solid case of baby fever.

"She's coming home with me tonight, yeah?" Maya 'checked,' making Michael laugh.

"I'll make sure you get her back."

As Lucas' uncles followed their daughter to her station, Maya spotted Lambert Day and Taylor Munroe as they arrived in class. Neither one of them was doing a presentation in this class today. Lambert had explained that it would have felt weird to bring his dad out here after he'd been the substitute, even if his classmates had obviously not been taught by him. Anyway, he had chosen to bring his mother, and he was doing his presentation in English, after he'd read her favorite novel for the first time. And Taylor, of course, was doing his presentation in gym, with his father the former basketball star.

"You're not doing it here?" Maya overheard Lea, and she turned to find that she'd addressed this question to the boys at the next station. "Isn't your mother a sculptor or something?" she was asking Taylor, and Maya couldn't keep herself from continuing to listen in as she moved about the room. Is she? In all this time, she'd never considered that the woman might have been an artist of any kind. If she was though, how had neither one of her children brought her in today?

"She does pottery," Taylor shrugged. "She does tutorials, sells her stuff online."

"Why didn't you bring her then?" Lea pushed on.

"I asked, but she said she couldn't make it. It's cool though, I'm doing it with my dad in gym."

After the freshman class was over, with two full periods free ahead of them, Maya got Marianne into her stroller and she and her grandmother took her on a walk in the area around the school. They made it all the way to the sidewalk along nearby shops before Elizabeth said anything.

"There was a boy in your class just now…"

"There were several of them, yes, you'll need to be more…"

"He reminded me a lot of your friend, before he got all his hair cut off," Elizabeth touched her head. Maya willed herself not to react so much beyond 'oh, yeah, him.'

"That's Taylor, he's Phoebe's brother, from this morning?" she explained. "With the photographer?"

"Yes, of course, yes," Elizabeth nodded. Bringing Phoebe back into her active memory might not have been the safest course of action, as it left her looking as though her mind had just gone 'now that I think about it, she kind of reminds me of him, too.' It led Maya to change the subject almost out of the blue, though it didn't feel exactly like that was what she was doing. Her alternate subject was one she genuinely felt the need to address, and it was also something she could be forgiven for, as she spoke up.

"I feel like we need to… acknowledge the absence, with my juniors. Khalil's absence. I just… I'm not sure?" Family Day… Back at their grandparents' house, Khalil and Desi Russell would continue to mourn their mother, even as Khalil would try and keep the fact that their father had been too broken up by the loss and had chosen to fly back out again, rather than deal with his grief along with his children. Without having spoken a word of it, that much was clear, just as it was clear, to Khalil, absolutely, that there could be no blame on him. He understood, even as he was left to cope, and to protect Desi, who might have more trouble comprehending why her dad would choose as he'd done.

Parents and choices… Always parents and choices…

They were on their way back to the school when Maya happened to turn her head at the exact right moment to spot a car parked just ahead, at the curb, and the driver in its front seat. Jo Munroe. She hadn't seen her again, not since that parent teacher night more than a year ago, the night that changed everything. But she saw her now, and just as she'd seen her, the woman looked up and their eyes met.

All this time, she'd been filled with so many questions, ones with no clear or easy answer especially, ones that would only ever remain that way unless she got to see her again, or… There were the big ones, obviously. Why had she left? Why had she stayed away? If she was in Austin all this time, which she was, did she never expect to run into her sons or her former husband? How had the divorce happened? How much did Mr. Orlando know? When Jo Munroe had walked into her daughter's art class, the spring before last, and found a woman referred to as 'Mrs. Friar,' had she thought of her son and his friend, and his friend's mother, who had been her friend? When she'd found out Dylan was teaching at the school, what had she thought? What did she know now? Why hadn't she come today? Was she really busy? Clearly, she couldn't have been, because here she was. That was one answer at least, right?

In the look they shared, Maya made no effort to hide anything that might have been going through her mind. She knew the truth, part of it at least. She knew about her kids, all four of them. There was nothing of loathing or anything of the kind, no judgment, just awareness. And in the woman's face, she saw… Retreat? Shame? Why was she here? Was she planning to go in there? Taylor's presentation, gym class… Dylan. No… No, you can't…

Maya shook her head. It was only a reaction in her mind, translated to motion, but there it was. A moment later, Jo Munroe's car pulled back on to the street, and she drove away. Maya watched her go, and a few seconds later, it was like waking from a trance, finding herself still standing there, hands on the stroller handles, the school ahead of them. The moment broken she went on pushing the stroller.

"Now, what was that about?" Elizabeth asked, following at her side. Maya let out a breath.

"Nothing you need to be thinking about."

When Maya had welcomed all the juniors and their family members and the bell had called them to attention, she stood in front of the class for a moment, gathering her words.

"Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for being here on Family Day." She paused. "Today, I've been lucky enough to see so many of my students come up here and present, with a parent, or a grandparent, sibling, uncle, aunt, cousin… It's been really, truly a privilege. Now, with all of you here, the last group of the day, I couldn't let the moment go by without… acknowledging an absence, acknowledging one family. I'd like to take a moment, to ask you to keep Khalil Russell in heart and mind, as he and his family mourn the loss of his mother."

Most if not all of the family members here would have heard about the Russells' recent loss, and it showed in the quiet which reigned in the room for several moments. There was no telling exactly when Khalil would return to school, to this classroom, but he was and would be here with them in spirit, as his classmates kept him among them.

The moment in time had to give way to the presentations, with the full slate they had ahead of them. Roman Day ended up going first, mostly because his own turn was slightly time sensitive. While Lambert had chosen his mother as his subject for today, Roman had chosen… well, Lambert. He'd recruited his little brother right out of his last class of the day, which was gym, so he could sit in on the presentation he had inspired. Roman had gone the way of wanting to show the art in culinary art, and he had his younger brother to thank for that. The whole thing had been very funny, intentionally so, and no one laughed harder than the freshman boy himself.

When Roman finished, the next student to go up needed a couple minutes to set up, and so Maya saw Lambert out of class and walked him back to the gym. She wouldn't say that it had been necessary, but at this point she simply couldn't help herself.

"How's it going out there? Did they start already?" she asked him.

"Yeah, they did," the boy nodded casually. "I waited until Taylor had his turn, I promised I'd stick around," he explained. Maya tried not to look so much like she'd gotten shivers. More questions were in her head, couldn't stop. She thought of Peter Munroe, in that gym, facing his old friend's son, facing the son of the man whose wife he'd taken away. There was no way he wouldn't know who Dylan was either and very little chance that he'd ever believe that Dylan couldn't recognize him, so…

"How'd it go? His presentation?" Maya asked.

"Fine, I think," Lambert shrugged. "Why?"

"Just wondering, you know. I always care how you're all doing, even if it's not in my class," she smiled. Lambert accepted this.

"The presentation went fine," he stated again. "I think Mr. Orlando was nervous about today though. Maybe because he's new."

"He was nervous?" Maya asked.

"Yeah. Some of the others kind of laughed, but it wasn't that funny. He's just so goofy sometimes, they thought it was a gag, I think."

When they reached the gym, Lambert went in and rejoined his class. Another of the students was in the middle of their presentation. Maya caught Dylan's eye from where she stayed at the door. You're fine. You got this. He took a deep breath, as good of a way as any for him to show that he both understood the message and thanked her for it. Maya tipped her head and started back for her class. Family Day didn't come every year, and she was kind of glad for it right now. Maybe it wouldn't be this way every time, but this year's edition would definitely have repercussions down the line.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners